For children

Learning through poetry, finding words

An educational practice reaching from books to children’s choirs.

In a 2013 interview, Zaferyıldızı describes herself first as a teacher. Discussing Gözleri Şiir Çocuk, she sets out an approach to art and education attentive to children’s perspectives.

At Near East University’s Library and Literature Conversations in 2024, she read from the book and explained how the television programme of the same name sought to connect children with poetry.

Lyric writing is another part of this work. EMU’s International Choirs Festival lists Cennettir Kıbrısım, with her words and Ayhan Öztürk’s music, as the compulsory shared song for children’s choirs.

Thinking in children's language

Her university talks have brought together a love of one's mother tongue, cultural values and communication. She has shared with students and trainee teachers her belief that poetry belongs in education from an early age.

2009

Şiirlerden Şarkılara

A collection of children's songs based on poems from the book. Released in 2009, the CD gave the written poems another form of expression through voice and melody.

Cennettir Kıbrısım

With lyrics by Şirin Zaferyıldızı and music by Ayhan Öztürk, this piece is also in the repertoire of the EMU International Choirs Festival. Its score is available on the university's website.